Outtakes

After the release of Guilds, Donald X. Vaccarino published a lengthy list of Dominion outtakes—cards that he playtested and decided not to publish for one reason or another. The full list can be found here, and includes many early versions of cards that were eventually revised and released; what follows is a list of some of the most distinctive and interesting outtakes that are not simply early versions of eventually-published cards, but have been discussed elsewhere or been influential on game rules or future card design. Some have the same names as cards that ended up getting published.

Dungeon: Trash a card from your hand; discard a card; +3 cards

Was originally in the Base Set. It was moved to Intrigue, then Dark Ages, where it was finally cut for being too similar to existing cards.

Tower: a Reaction that allowed you to gain a card costing up to when another player bought a card costing or more

Abroad: Originally the second expansion, it was split up into Seaside and Hinterlands, though "Abroad" remained the name for Hinterlands for quite some time.

Prophecy: Originally intended to be the seventh expansion to Dominion, with a "top-of-deck" theme. Prophecy was dissolved and never released after too many cards were moved from it to other sets.

War: The forerunner of Dark Ages, with a theme of player interaction. Dominion's German publisher objected to "War" as a theme for the set, and non-Attack player interaction cards were needed in every set, so the set was changed.

Alchemy: Originally the final expansion to Dominion, it was split into the current Alchemy and Cornucopia when Dominion's German publisher asked for smaller expansions.